External electric field promotes ammonia stripping from wastewater

The gas stripping process is widely used for the removal and recovery of ammonia from wastewater. The ammonia removal in the stripping process depends on the pH, temperature, and air supply, and in general, 10.5, 60 °C, 5 L/min or more are recommended as near-optimal. However, alkaline chemicals and energy can seriously burden the stripping process operation, depending on the wastewater characteristics. Herein, external electric field-coupled ammonia stripping, which improves ammonia removal from aqueous solutions, was investigated. The ammonia removal in the conventional stripping was between 17.7 % and 90.6 %, depending on how close to the near-optimal conditions. The electric field increased the removal efficiency from 51.1 % to 94.3 %, as the strength and frequency increased to 15 V/cm and 50 MHz. The electric field promotion of ammonia stripping correlated closely with the increase in ammonia molecular diffusion. The electric field has been shown to improve the diffusion of ammonia molecules without dielectric heating by increasing the kinetic energy. The electric field improved the ammonia removal more as the pH, temperature, and air supply conditions were far from optimal. The electric field reduces the alkaline chemicals and the electric energy for heating and air supply, and the energy consumption to form the electric field is only a few watts. The electric field-coupled process offers a new gas stripping platform that can economically improve ammonia removal from wastewater.